Rationale and Methodology

Survey of
R&D Projects

As shown in detail in Appendix 2 (enclosed in the download PDF), a total of 71 R&D projects are considered for this report. We selected the projects that we deemed to be relevant to TSOs and that are being performed within Europe. Furthermore, all projects under consideration are funded either through the European Commission, by Member States or directly by TSOs. The division of European versus national is on the basis of funding and not on the scope of activities or partnership in a consortium.

Clusters and Functional ­Objectives

The monitoring exercise aims at checking the progress and achievement of the R&D Roadmap. The R&D activities required to address the challenges of a rapidly shifting energy paradigm are grouped into six distinct, yet interdependent clusters. These clusters facilitate collaboration between stakeholders while providing a shared repository of ideas. This not only prevents redundant R&D but is also highly cost effective and exploits synergies inherent in Europe.

Each cluster is broken down into a group of functional objectives on issues requiring collective management to prevent redundant R&D and thus ensure complete coverage. The functional objectives are subdivided into multiple specific tasks. Specific tasks are addressed by a range of European and national R&D projects, whereby each project may cover one or even several specific tasks and in turn apply to multiple functional objectives and clusters.

Methodology of Monitoring

The monitoring methodology applied in this report is similar to what was used in the R&D Monitoring Report 2013. As in the previous edition, our assessments are based on the R&D Roadmap 2013 – 2022. The quantification of the fulfilment percentage is done in the same direction without applying any weighting factors among clusters. The process includes three steps: gathering information, processing information, and packaging results.

ENTSO-E’s Working Group on Monitoring and Knowledge Sharing (WG MKS) gathers the information via a questionnaire sent to project coordinators whose projects are related to the objectives contained in the R&D Roadmap, both at the European and national levels. The questionnaire is designed to gather information in relation to the contribution of each project towards different specific tasks of functional objectives, timing, and budget status. It has been updated to comply with the objectives of the R&D Roadmap 2013 – 2022.

The information is then consolidated to give a complete overview of the progress towards achieving the goals set by the R&D Roadmap.

The results indicate how each project contributes to its corresponding specific tasks, functional objectives, and clusters. As a result, it is possible to assess the completion statuses of specific clusters and functional objectives and ultimately the achievements of the entire roadmap. Furthermore, project coordinators are asked to assess project efficiency and effectiveness as well as their milestone achievements and budget scenarios.

Finally, the completion status of each functional ­objective, cluster, and the roadmap are then determined by assigning percentages to the following ­progress indicators:

Completed – percentage of objectives that have been successfully finished;

Ongoing – percentage of objectives that are ­currently being worked on;

Proposed – percentage of objectives that have been proposed but are awaiting approval; and

Not started – percentage of objectives where no work has commenced or been proposed.

The progress indicators for each specific task of a functional objective are averaged to obtain the progress status of the functional objective itself. No weighting is applied to the progress indicators of the clusters. Accordingly, each functional objective within a cluster contributes equally to the overall progress status of the cluster, just as each cluster contributes equally to the progress of the roadmap as a whole.